


the regulation

by atlas_oulast



Series: the system [2]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Blood and Violence, Child Abuse, Crime & Criminals, Gangs, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Legend AU, Mermaids, Teen Pregnancy, be more quarantine, organised crime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:27:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23626123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlas_oulast/pseuds/atlas_oulast
Summary: Jeremy, Thalia, Jade, and Two in their further adventures on Pyros and beyond, trying their best to bring peace and justice to their home world, and every other possible planet.For the Be More Quarantine Challenge.
Relationships: Jeremy Heere & Brooke Lohst, Jeremy Heere & Chloe Valentine, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell, Jeremy Heere & Thalia McCarthy
Series: the system [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691437
Kudos: 1





	1. one: jeremy

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY. i used all the prompts from this round, 7 special prompts, and TWENTY FOUR past prompts. fucking kill me. also jeremy is Jewish and i used the weird pencil!!!

Jeremy was a double agent, working for the Pyros Police Department, and the Yellow Jade gang/crime syndicate.

One was a planet wide elite police force, arguably the best in the galaxy. One was a notorious, multi planet, widespread gang that stole from the rich and the tyrannical and gave to the poor and needy.

At least, he sure hoped _he was a double agent._

_After Thalia had shot him and outed him as an undercover PPD officer (he could say the same about her, except that she was the opposite of what he was) and Jeremy had exposed the abandoned mall as a Yellow Jade stronghold to cover any suspicion that he might be partial to them, he was now stuck at home on mandatory bed rest while his wound healed._

_He and Thalia had made up pretty quickly, and he agreed to do what she’d been doing for years: be a Yellow Jade informant inside the upper echelons of the PPD, aiding them in missions._

_As long as the leaders would accept him._

_Kitty brought two people to his apartment: one he had come to know as Sapphire and also Jade, but was truly Ruby Martel, and one he had come to know as Glimmer and Two, but who was really Quinn Flakah._

_They weren’t dressed in their usual Yellow Jade uniforms, obscuring their faces, and thus identities, from view from everyone, even other Yellow Jade members. The government was cracking down on them now, and they had to be dressed as civilians._

_Still, they hid their identities. Jade, the leader, shorter than the obnoxiously tall Two, wore a green dress made of a rough fabric usually used on potato sacks, that ended at her ankles but had two high slits to allows free movement, showing off her shapely pale legs and a set of stockings held in place with clips that were likely attached to a belt under her dress._

_In the parts of the stockings that were a more solid black, Jeremy knew there were weapons, and more on her hips._

_The dress was long sleeved and high necked; the neck ended at her chin. It was the ugliest dress he’d ever seen, but it was undoubtedly loaded with weapons. Black boots, not her normal PPD regulation boots, were on her feet._

_What hid her identity was a hooded red cloak, similar to the one she’d worn the day she’d stripped in a strip club diner and sold off her body. The hood was long, obscuring her face from view, and for good measure, a black cloth surgical style mask covered her mouth and her hair was covered in a gauzy veil, likely knotted in a tight bun at the nape of her neck._

_Two wore a soft hot pink sweater, big and puffy, with huge puffy full length sleeves that were the fashion... five years ago. But they weren’t going for fashion, they were going for function, and her sleeves were undoubtedly lined with weapons._

_She wore black leather pants, and tall green fish skin boots that ended just below her knee. Purple knee pads were tied on her knees, over her pants._

_Obscuring her face from view was a Garelian headdress. Garel was a planet several hours away at light speed, and women often wore intricate headdresses that hid their faces yet were eye catching. Hers was orange and red, looking like fire spilling out of a simple metal headband secure on her head with the help of intricate clips. The fiery fabric spilled from her headband and over her face, ending at her armpits. A slightly see through slit of fabric sat at her eye level, giving her the ability to see out of the headdress._

_“Officer Jeremy Louis... PPD. Sits in the Death Seat on the 70th floor, was sent on a mission to infiltrate the Yellow Jade. Got caught, spilled about the mall. Why exactly do I need to trust you?” Jade asked._

_Her voice was high pitched and calculating, cautious, fingers twitching at her waist, allowing him the knowledge that she had a pistol on either hip._

_“I can do what Thalia does... but I’m also a favourite of Campbell and Lord Green. I can get in closer, learn more about Campbell’s disappearance... and two are better than one,” Jeremy said._

_“How do we know we can trust you? You blew the mall for us, dipshit.”_

_“That was to make sure I didn’t seem suspicious... and I warned Thalia.”_

_He flashed back to the scene in his mind._

__Pain in his gut, Thalia’s face staring at him. She looked betrayed and guilty and shocked, and he was in pain._ _

__“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she cried, blood on her hands._ _

_“We found a new spot... not that we’d tell you where it is. You caused a lot of trouble for us, Jeremy.”_

_“It was to make sure I didn’t seem suspicious... I could’ve spilled a hell of a lot more if I wanted to. Not that that’s a threat, even if you don’t let me back in I wouldn’t spill.”_

_“I’ve known him for ages, Jade, Two,” Kitty said quietly. She had her PPD uniform on, nothing to hide her identity. But Jeremy had no doubt that the three had seen each other’s faces. “He’s felling the truth... he’s a trustworthy individual. I didn’t know he was trying to infiltrate us... but I know that his motives changed long before I found him out. He genuinely wants to be a part of this.”_

_“He blew the mall for us, Kitty!” Two argued._

_“He did. He could’ve blown a lot more... if he wanted to spill, he would’ve done it already. I haven’t been arrested. And a lot of others, too, if he hadn’t warned me he was going to spill about the mall.”_

_“He still displaced a lot of people,” Two said._

_“That was the lowest risk thing he could’ve done. He could’ve exposed me, told of where we frequent, where Bloody Mary docks... but he didn’t.”_

_“And how do you know that he really didn’t, and that he’s not just saying it?”_

_“Because I bugged him,” Kitty announced proudly._

_Jeremy was shocked for a moment- and it showed- but it was quickly replaced by a feeling of almost pride. But really, what did he expect? Thalia was thorough. She would’ve done something like that, for sure._

_“I bugged him ages ago. At the dock. I was getting suspicious, I helped him carry a crate and brushed his arm. One of my little helpers is on his underarm.”_

_Thalia grabbed his left arm, pushed up his sleeve, and turned it over. Her fingers brushed across the underside of his arm, almost ticklish, and then her fingers slid under something and dislodged it._

_It was tiny, tinier than the tiniest bug that the PPD used. It wasn’t flat, really, it moved like skin, as she wobbled it around to prove her point. It also looked like his skin tone, matching him almost exactly. There were even a couple freckles on it. Even the texture matched his skin. It was also paper thin, nearly impossible to see unless you knew what you were looking for._

_No wonder he hadn’t suspected anything._

_She peeled back the skin and exposed a tiny blue screen. Thalia tapped it thrice, and it lit up, flashing the tiny word _Deactivated_._

_“It feeds into my wrist computer, transcribes his every word. It’s cloaked and veiled, wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there. No piece of technology can detect it unless it’s a piece of technology I personally designed to detect it,” Thalia said proudly._

_To her credit, as far as Jeremy could tell, Jade and Two were impressed. He was pretty impressed, himself._

_“I never knew you were this good with gadgets, Lia,” Jeremy said._

_“I’m just full of fun skills,” Thalia said, smiling her cat’s grin._

_“Okay. Fine. So you’ve read every single transcript?” Two asked._

_“Yep. Every one. He’s not lying, you guys.”_

_“Then prove your loyalty,” Jade said. “Do some hazing.”_

_“Yeah, great idea, Jade,” Two said. “Vandalise Lord Green’s house in Yellow Jade gear. Put some sort of statement on it about how the PPD are behind the disappearance of Campbell. If you do it, you’re in.”_

_Thalia rolled Jeremy’s sleeve down for him. “You’re making the right choice, Jade. He’s trustworthy.”_

_“Okay. I trust you, Kitty... but he did cost us the mall,” Jade said._

_“Are you two ever going to let go of that?” Jeremy joked._

_Twin glares from under their head coverings told him all he needed to know._

_He held up his hands. “Kidding, kidding,” he laughed._

_“Oh, and one more thing,” Two said. “Double F Wolf? You were really _that_ stupid? We’re gonna call you Grey from now on.”_

_“Works for me,” Jeremy shrugged._

_“Vandalise the house and you’re in, kid,” Jade said._

_The two turned and left, and after a brief goodbye, Kitty hurried after them, her short, quick steps mirroring that of a cat._

_It was pretty stupid he hadn’t figured her out before._

________________________

_Getting close to Lord Green’s house was easier than Jeremy had thought it would be. He’d never been to his house, nor seen it, but it really was a sight to behold._

_It was a skyscraper, plated in gold. There were hidden windows behind the gold plating, making the structure look like one smooth outer layer to an onlooker, but in reality there were plenty of windows, only obvious inside._

_It didn’t have a gate, but Jeremy knew that there were plenty of security features. Pressure plates under the sidewalk would alert security inside that someone was walking there._

_Of course, plenty of people used the sidewalk, the skyscraper was right on the goddamn road, it was really when you got too close to the smooth structure that you started having problems._

_More pressure plates, much more sensitive ones, as you came closer, until you hit the enclosed glass entryway. It was an open entryway leading to a heavily barricaded door, and if anyone without special sensors in their shoes came too close, security officers would jump out and grab them. If not, homeless people would camp out there, and that wouldn’t look good for Lord Green._

_He went to the closest pressure plate that a civilian without shoe sensors could touch, quickly, not wanting to be too suspicious... although, he was in full Yellow Jade uniform right up by Lord Green’s house._

_He pulled a spray paint can out of the backpack that Kell Trayvis, or Dyhin Lopal, had had, and quickly began writing, in a blood red paint._

_He ran away as soon as he was done._

_But the words, seemingly drawn with blood, would bore holes into anyone’s head._

__Here lives the man who made Sheriff Campbell disappear. Here lives the man who frames the Yellow Jade for a crime they did not commit._ _

_Grey was initiated into the Yellow Jade almost the very instant he arrived at their new stronghold after the vandalism. It was a simpler, smaller building, an abandoned government structure in the Lake sector._

_The ‘initiation’ that Kell Trayvis had gone through was a fake, orchestrated by a suspicious Jade, Kitty, and Two._

_The real initiation was him sticking his hands in a bowl of red paint and leaving handprints on a shining black granite wall._

_Hundreds upon hundreds of other handprints were splayed across the wall._

_“We had everyone put their handprints on this wall when we moved,” Kitty explained._

_After he left his handprints, his hands were dipped in a bowl of water and cleaned._

_“Normally this would be the part where I give you your head covering and you put on... let’s pretend you didn’t already have this,” Kitty said, handing him back his head covering._

_He skilfully put it on, in a practiced manner. It was perfectly placed over his face, and now he was, really this time, a member of the Yellow Jade._

_“Welcome home,” Thalia said._


	2. two: jeremy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group visits the strip club diner again, and they recruit two women to the cause.

The next two weeks were a nonstop thrill of adrenaline, risk taking, and... thrill.

While most members were laying low these days, he, Kitty, Two, and Jade still usually walked around in full uniform. 

One of the days they didn’t walk around in full uniform was when Jade took the new red hood and a different watch to the strip club/diner.

Neon lights said simply ‘The Diner’ on the outside, shining in the dark and puddles on the ground from the recent rain. This whole sector, Red, was the neon lights sector of Kian.

The simply named ‘Diner’ was much more than that. Grey, Kitty, and Two in civilian disguise chowed down on another canned meat and cheese ribbon loaf platter, and recruited Selli, the waitress. Not a bad outing.

Jade again successfully stripped, posing with the neon angel lights on the wall, selling the hood, the watch, her scarlet red silk stockings, her garters, even her bra. The only piece that remained was her underwear and a Garelian headdress.

This one was much simpler, worn traditionally on Garel by girls who were engaged. If you didn’t know what you were talking about, was just a piece of pink silk wrapped twice around her head, obscuring from view her face.

Really, it was special fabric, allowing for breathing and ample view, on one side, but on the other you could see almost nothing. It was only made on Garel. Jade had ‘acquired’ it.

Jade sprawled across the counter, spreading her long legs up in the air in a very suggestive way in front of a bearded man wearing a green button down and simple khakis, probably some low level government worker.

“Come on, sir, just two thousand credits for the shoes,” Jade said, dangling her feet, even letting her left shoe fall off most of the way and dangle it on her big toe.

The man gave in when she spread her legs enough to see just about everything through her mostly see through black underwear and lifted her arm from her chest.

After he left, Jade slid down onto a stool next to Kitty, and Kitty relinquished a big, long light blue shawl, knit in a fishnet style, to her. It was a shawl Jeremy had seen Thalia wear millions of times before, something she’d brought with her to the Academy and wore almost constantly in there when not in uniform, to hide her baby bump. 

After Olive was born, it was a baby blanket. The Academy, knowing she was a very valuable cadet despite her pregnancy and not wanting to loose her, provided her with a crib, some regulation grey baby clothes, and plenty of blankets and diapers, but the shawl had been the favourite baby blanket of Olive and Thalia both. It was impossibly soft and cozy, so it was no wonder why.

“How much did you make off petty theft, Jade?” Jeremy joked.

Jade made an annoyed sound. “I’m not a thief. I’ve told you this before. I am not a thief, I’m just-“

“Good at acquiring things that aren’t yours,” the two finished in unison.

“You know, lady, this establishment would be happy to hire you as a girl,” Selli said.

“We just recruited you, you can’t recruit me back,” Jade laughed.

Jade and Two went to the bathroom together after that, so that Two could give her the clothes she’d brought for her after the strip. 

The door to the diner opened, making the little bell jingle, and a familiar woman in less than familiar clothes plopped down dejectedly at a booth.

Selli hurried to her with a food menu and a strip club menu.

It was Chrissy, the girl Kitty had fed at the mall so long ago. Rather than her very reporter like clothes that Jeremy had seen her in before, she wore just a loose white tee shirt and pink leggings, with sandals on her feet, showing her painted red toenails. And rather than her usual cat eye glasses, she had big, round frames

“Welcome to the diner, missy, what kind of snack can I interest you in?” Selli babbled robotically.

“A box of retta juice, please. That’s all,” Chrissy said dejectedly, handing Selli back the menus after having barely looked at them.

Kitty went over to the girl and plopped down next to her after Selli hurried off to the kitchen. “What’s the matter, Christine?”

Ah. So Chrissy was a nickname.

“Boss won’t give me a raise... said my story about the Sheriff maybe getting fired was a one hit wonder after dragging his feet, making it look like he was going to promote me. He won’t even give me anything good,” she complained.

Selli silently plopped a yellow juice box onto the table, not disturbing the conversation. Retta juice was a sweet and golden yellow juice made from retta fruit, grown and harvested entirely in the Thynak, Maraña, and Alibrèighèlá sectors. 

Christine unzipped a clutch wallet and handed Selli a couple bills as she stabbed the juice box with the attached straw while Thalia spoke.

“That stinks, Christine... I’m sorry.”

Jade seemed to have a lightbulb go off in her head at that exact moment, and hurried over to the booth.

“I can help you, Christine.”

“Who are you?”

“Jade. J.J. Ruby Martel. Interview me. Publish that in the paper... an interview with Ruby Martel herself! Great Yellow Jade PR, and great for you. It could be a whole goddamn _series_ of stories and interviews.”

Christine’s eyes lit up. “I love it.”

The two were deep in discussion an hour later, Christine scribbling down notes as Jade spoke. Jeremy and Two got pretty bored, so after getting approval from Kitty and Jade, who going content to stay and do this, then go back to home base, the two set out on a walk.

Red sector was all neon and nothing else. A building with a sign reading ‘Phillips’ next to a building lined with simple neon pink lights, a couple carnival games and several strip clubs.

Truly not trashy at all.

A coloured screen of sorts hung over the road at one section, and when you looked through it, the moon appeared a different colour. Today, it was purple. A crowd of other people had assembled to stare up at it, but Grey and Two simply glanced up and then passed through.

Two and Grey walked in silence for an hour, a silence that was comfortable. They didn’t need to say anything.

Glimmer might’ve been fake, but Jeremy had the feeling that Two kinda had the hots for him.

He wasn’t going to mention it, much less make a big deal out of it, but he could tell she kinda liked him.

Oh well.

_______________

Jade ordered that Thalia and Jeremy look into PPD listening posts at work. 

The PPD had seemed to know their every move before they’d made it for the past three months after Jeremy was initiated. It was really just petty theft, a little bit of vandalism.

But the affect on the populace had been huge.

After Lord Green’s house had been vandalised, people were _constantly_ talking about it. News stations were covering conspiracy theories and the literal cleanup and the PR cleanup, and people on the streets talked of nothing else.

It was glorious.

And yet, the Yellow Jade could hardly do anything, in or out of uniform, without being fired at by PPD officers in combat uniform. They didn’t discuss any plans at the new hideout, instead doing it at residences, and Thalia had bugged an officer. And from what they knew inside from small talk with Officer Michael Mell, Jeremy’s childhood friend, and Officer Dillinger.

“We have tracers in every member we come close enough to put on. They’re not listening devices, the department doesn’t want to spring for that, but we can trace their movements roughly,” Michael said proudly. He was leading the effort to crack down on the Jade with Lord Green.

The tracers were removed from every bit of clothing, the Jade hideout moved locations again, and Kitty saw to it that a scrambler was worn by every Yellow Jade member, designed and assembled by her personally.

“They took off the tracers, but we set up listening posts across Kian. We get plenty of conversations from them,” Michael reported proudly, smiling from ear to ear.

He seemed too loyal. It made Jeremy sad, undermining Michael’s efforts.

They had been friends since they were five years old in the Mio sector, going to school together, lobbying to share every possible class in primary school. For as long as Jeremy could remember, the two had planned to go to the Academy after primary school.

After passing their entrance exams, they hadn’t been able to room together, instead, Jeremy was paired with a tiny girl named Thalia who had passed her exams with flying colours, Jeremy only barely. It was the hope of a headmaster that the two could help each other.

And they did, studying details and body language and making sure the other passed every test. And then Jeremy was there when Thalia was giving birth in the infirmary, holding her hand and soothing her.

He and Michael had drifted apart in the Academy, but were still good friends, the three making sure they all got jobs on the 70th floor in Kian as quickly as possible. Michael had never been particularly close to Thalia, but Michael’s parents originated from the planet of Phita, and so had Thalia’s father. Thalia’s mother had been from Nihong. The two had bonded about being Phitian.

Jeremy hated undermining his efforts.

But once they had told Jade about the listening posts (in Thalia’s apartment, rather than on the streets; Olive asleep in bed) Jade had ordered them to investigate further.

They had the second highest level of clearance in the building, the only higher level of clearance belonging to Sheriff Campbell, and Lord Green. They were also experts in body language. It wasn’t hard to snoop around the building.

Thalia slapped a bug on someone working the comm switchboard on the 50th floor, and found that they had listening posts all over Kian... but also in other cities where the Yellow Jade were prominent, including Nbootui, Treeyl, Trnwa, and Lucian, and the Jersey Sector was especially mentioned. It was the sector, other than the sub sectors of Kian, where the Jade was most prominent.

Oh, and there were also listening posts on ten other planets.

Jeremy and Thalia stared at the list that her wrist bracelet had transcribed.

_  
Pyros  
Garel  
Lyko  
Phita  
Nihong  
Tyynta  
Rtbva Major  
Mikos Minor  
R2-778  
Lhoran  
Tuuk _

“They have Phita and Nihong bugged... they have my home bugged,” Thalia whispered.

Thalia’s parents were incredibly violent and abusive, but Thalia still held close ties to her heritage, but not her ancestors. She spoke Phitian and Nihongese fluently, and participated in holidays and customs.

And her home, both on other planets and Jersey Sector, were bugged.

_____________

“We have to destroy them!” Kitty cried, addressing Jade. “We have to.”

“I agree,” Two said slowly. “Our entire organisation will be wiped out if we don’t... five members were killed in Nbootui today. Tira, Luci, Tres, Teeth, and Hestia.”

The group bowed their heads in a moment of silence and respect for their fallen siblings.

“We need those listening posts destroyed. We can have a squad ‘discover’ a couple posts, and then lead to a destruction of every one across the planet,” Jade said. “We could ‘discover’ a map in the posts.”

“On it,” Two said, tapping some buttons on Thalia’s wrist computer, and allowing a map to be printed out on a printer across the room. She traced the web of posts with her finger sadly.

“They hear us,” Two said softly.

“Not here,” Thalia said. “I scan for bugs and posts every day, you know my scanners don’t overlook anything.”

“We’ll make up a plan and take out some posts outside the planet... we have a good shot at wiping them off the map if we focus our efforts,” Jade said.

Kitty nodded. “We’d better.”

“In the meantime... someone has to sneak back into the mall and get the angels and the paintings,” Two said.

Jeremy remembered the objects. In the mall, there was a secret room, where a picture of two people kissing during the Parasite Plague hung, and three angels holding secret documents sat on a shelf. 

To get to the picture and the angels, one had to enter a code to enter a door and enter a room with a metal desk and metal chairs, akin to an interrogation room. A textured painting hung on the wall, written on the back was _This wasn’t what I was expecting when she invited me to the park._

Behind the painting was a cubby with a keypad, and when you entered the code, the wall swung open into another room. You hadn’t reached the angels and picture yet, though. 

You had to enter another code in an empty room to make the wall swing open again, and finally, you found the picture, the intricately painted angels.

“Why?” Jeremy asked. “I mean, the angels I get, but the paintings-“

“Have more to them that you know,” Two cut in. “We need them.”

“Okay. We do that, we destroy listening posts. That’s our new mission... of course, we’ll still be doing our usual things,” Jade ordered.

“You two, Kitty and Grey... you should memorise the maps and the destroy them. We can’t leave any paper or tech trails, no matter how secure we think they are. This reminds us that the PPD aren’t completely stupid,” Two added.

They nodded in unison. “Consider it done,” Kitty said.

“And... we’re going to extract you two. Get a new mole, and steal some intel on our way out... the map of light speed routes that the PPD has used recently, crime scene intel on Campbell’s disappearance,” Jade finished.

“Seriously?” Kitty asked. “I can’t do that to Oh Double U Oh.”

“You have savings, don’t you?”

“I didn’t want her involved... I don’t want her life to be like mine,” Kitty argued.

Jeremy realised that they were talking about Olive.

“OWO will have to deal... she wants to be involved, doesn’t she? Key’s involved,” Jade argued.

“I want her to have a normal life!” Thalia cried, and Jeremy knew that there were tears pooling in her eyes under her veil.

“She will get a normal life.... but not for awhile after this. You can resettle.”

“I don’t care if me being extracted means that I’m more flexible... she has to have a normal life. Not living under a code name on a different planet, away from her friends and her life.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” Jade asked.

“I stay in the PPD. I use my 70th floor leave for a bit, that gives you a flexible Kitty for a bit, up to a year.” Anyone who worked on the 70th floor was entitled to a month of fully paid leave every year, and it could be saved from year to year, up to a year’s worth of leave. It was their way of keeping their highest ranking officers happy.

Kitty had a year saved up.

“Okay. Fine. Grey?”

“I’ll be extracted fully,” Jeremy said without a second thought.

He had money saved up. He lived on his own and his rent wasn’t bad, and he really did hate working at the PPD. He could afford to steal intel and leave... a life among the Jade was a thrilling and exhilarating thought.

“Then let’s do it. But keep stealing food shipments... there are people to be fed,” Two said.

“The people need us,” Kitty said sadly.

“We’ll each memorise half the intel,” Jeremy said, watching Two rip up the map.


	3. three: jeremy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Jade attack two government cargo ships carrying weapons, and end up escaping with the notorious Bloody Mary.

It was, somehow, just another routine day in the Yellow Jade. It was a Saturday, three weeks after they had discovered the listening posts, and yet, they hadn’t attempted to destroy any yet, nor get the angels or the paintings, all because of what they were doing today.

Jeremy was spending the day sabotaging a shipment of secret government weapons that Officer Dillinger had let slip about to Officer Louis.

That was okay. Dillinger didn’t need to worry about telling Officer J.M. Louis about a shipment of Class TAAZ-8880 Plasma Rocket Launchers, and he certainly didn’t need to worry about that information getting into the hands of the Yellow Jade, or being sold to Bloody Mary.

He, Two, Jade, Kitty, Ryder, Crumbcakes, and three others he hadn’t met before, Lynn, Key, and Peep, in full uniform, were waiting in an alleyway by the docks to spring the second that they saw the cargo ships arrive.

There was to be 2 jet black HERGO-66122 Cargo Ships, Class 88-99137-5549, RNEA0 Engine, Class 55 Light Speed Drive, carrying 10 crates of the rocket launchers between them. They were huge weapons, so 10 crates worth was a lot. Judging by the size of an average cargo crate and the size of that particular rocket launcher, there were probably 30 to a crate.

They were to be given to lords in every sector on Pyros. There were only 91 sectors besides the sub sectors of Kian, which didn’t really have lords, just the royal family. So there would probably be one or two to every Lord, a couple to the royal family, and the rest to the PPD.

Too bad they’d never make it to the lords.

As soon as they saw one of the ships fly over, they counted to 500 and then Kitty climbed onto Two’s obnoxiously high shoulders and leaped off, onto the rooftop.

Jeremy had never seen Thalia jump that high. He hadn’t even known it was humanly possible.

Kitty threw a rope over the side of the building, holding tight despite her petite frame as Key climbed up, then Jade, Crumbcakes, Peep, then Jeremy, and lastly Two.

Jeremy looked around from his vantage point. From here, one could clearly see the ship docked, lowering it’s ramp to unload.

Simple dock workers were unloading the cargo... to prevent it from looking suspicious.

“No casualties,” Jade whispered, and then Kitty pushed a button on a utility bracelet she wore, and a magnetic grappling hook shot out at the ship.

As soon as it latched, Kitty pushed another button, bringing the end out of the bracelet with it’s own magnetic hold. It was slapped to the metal roof of the building, and then Kitty used a small black hook to slide across the rope like a zip line, the whole process taking maybe ten seconds.

So that’s why Kitty had insisted they each carry one of those hooks.

Everyone followed her as quickly as was safe, Jeremy going third to last, only Crumbcakes and Two going behind him.

They landed at the ramp of the ship, and by the time Jeremy had jumped off the line, Peep and Jade were pointing guns at the two dock workers and Kitty and the rest were stealing cargo.

Every crate was accounted for, and when Two came down, she detached the line from the roof and swung on it, detaching it on the other end as well. The group ran away, back to their alley, with the rocket launchers in their possession.

These crates had hovercraft lift on them, making them easy to push, not needing to be carried. Kitty hacked the control panel and opened the lid of one of the crates silently as they waited.

She ran her hand over the stacks of rocket launchers, and just as she did, red laser bolt shots were fired in their direction.

Kitty collapsed briefly from shock, but quickly got back up, picking up her two pistols and firing back.

It was PPD officers, in full combat uniform, laser bolt blast proof shirts and the most flexible, comfortable pants that Jeremy had ever worn, yet lined entirely with hidden pockets. They, too, would withstand laser bolts.

There was only one way in and out of the alley, and the officers seemed to think that the group was cornered with no hope for a minute or two, the idea supported by their stupid, brash actions, including not using any sort of shield against the barrage of Yellow Jade fire, allowing the bolts to be soaked up by their clothes.

But they would not last forever.

And they had the rocket blasters.

Something began to obscure the sun, like an eclipse, and everyone glanced up.

It was the second ship.

Kitty got out a rocket blaster, and before anyone could say anything, or even process it, she fired up into the ship.

The weapons shields were down for docking, as was regulation for docking government ships, and the rocket blaster set off every other blaster in that ship.

It was too bad that they hadn’t unloaded the blasters.

The ship exploded in plumes of neon purple and pink, fading into a sight akin to a campfire as debris began to rain down, just like the ship Jeremy had shot down a couple months ago.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Thalia ordered, and the group ran at full speed, exiting the alley easily, the low ranking PPD officers distracted by the explosion above, even still pushing the crates along with them.

“We have to get to Bloody Mary!” Two shouted.

“She’ll let us hide out with her for awhile,” Jade agreed, still running.

“Wait!” Thalia interjected. “Someone should stay behind to cover our tracks and steal the rest of the documents and intel from the PPD, maybe even recruit a new mole... don’t think you can go back after this.”

“And we can’t both stay behind?” Grey asked.

“We memorised the listening post information, Grey. I... I can’t really go back after this. I have to go on leave and follow you guys while you go.”

“You stay, you get OWO and take Key with you... she’ll get things from our home. Steal the intel, go on leave, and recruit someone new,” Two said. 

“I will,” Thalia said. She grabbed Key’s hand, Jade and Two grabbed the crates the two had been pushing along, and Two handed Kitty her magnetic grappling hook.

The next instant, the two broke off from the group and they were gone.

_________________

The remaining group (Grey, Jade, Two, Crumbcakes, Ryder, Lynna, and Peep) proceeded to Bloody Mary’s ship, hearing the PPD’s boots distantly thrumming against the ground.

Jade explained what was going on to Mary quickly, and she had just nodded, helped them load up. At the last second, Peep and Jade exchanged a few precious words that Grey didn’t hear, and then Peep hopped off the ship and ran in a different direction, towards the Tula Sector.

“Let’s go, Mary,” Crumbcakes yelled. Up in the cockpit, where Jade had run up to with Mary, Jade stomped on the floor, heard in the cargo hold where the rest of them were, and the ship took off fast.

They exited the atmosphere and headed for a light speed lane, and the rest of them had just climbed up into the cockpit and strapped in on a row of three bench seats before Mary pulled the lever.

Once safely in light speed, Mary unbuckled and turned her seat towards Jade, who was sitting in the copilot’s chair.

“Only half the blasters _and_ I have to smuggle this motley crew?” She snapped. Jeremy saw a glint of kindness behind her eyes, as if the snappish tone was not quite genuine. Her and Jade undoubtedly went way back.

“Look, Mary... we’ll reimburse you for this,” Jade said calmly. “This is a huge service to us.”

“No, whatever,” Mary said, waving her hand, a smile beginning to form on her face. “This is repayment for when you saved my ass on Wlyn.”

Jade relaxed, relieved.

“One condition. I want to see your goddamn face, Cece.”

“You can’t call me that, Mary,” Jade mumbled.

“Oh? Are you not Cece?”

“I... I just... they don’t know.”

“Well, they’re onboard Bloody Mary’s ship, and I assume we’ll have to blow up some stuff before I bring you all back?”

“If you could help us blow up some government listening posts on other planets-“ 

“Say no more. I’ll do it, no cost, for the sake of repaying debts... as long as you loose the masks and fake names. Nobody’s listening or watching on Bloody Mary’s ship but Bloody Mary.

And slowly, Jade undid her head covering.

Jeremy only had time to realise that this was the first time he’d see Jade’s face before it came off.

Jade had a diamond shaped face, pale skin without a single freckle or blemish, small, soft, determined green eyes with a sparkle, and when she pulled out her bun, she had long blonde hair, down to her waist, with the last four inches dyed pink.

“So you were Jade today, huh, Chlo?” Bloody Mary asked softly.

“Mhm... it was a big enough mission that Two wasn’t me.”

Everyone looked at Jade, and then at Two.

Two pulled off her veil. She was also blonde, soft blue eyes, soft pale skin with a few light freckles, a chubbier face than Jade. Her hair was much shorter, softer, and a lighter shade of blonde, only coming down to her chest. After letting down her bun, she immediately took the garter that had been holding it in place and tied her hair into a ponytail.

“Long time no see, Brooke.”

“It’s been awhile,” Two- Brooke- agreed.

“Do you want to explain to them your little twinkies scheme?” Mary asked Jade, amused.

Jade sighed. “Guess we don’t have much a choice.”

Two ended up being the one to explain. She and Jade were nowhere close in height, but Two frequently posed and acted as Jade, with Jade as Two. Jade, Chloe Valentine, was the real leader, and Brooke Lohst, Two, was her body double, so if she was captured or died, the real leader would remain.

After that, Bloody Mary quietly revealed her own name- Jenna Rolan.

“A lot less intimidating than Bloody Mary, huh, kiddos?” She joked softly.

After those revelations, the rest of the masks came off quickly. Crumbcakes was black, with long dark brown and purple braids running down to her knees, and her real name was Madeline DeFrère.

Ryder was named Rich Goranski, he had short blonde hair with a red streak through the middle. He had more tan skin than Chloe and Brooke, but was definitely white. His face was covered in freckles.

Lynna was Nicole Santos, she was a redheaded black girl with skin a deep oak brown, with a snow white birth mark that looked like a paint splatter splatter across her left cheek... until she took off her jacket and detachable sleeves on the shirt underneath, and there were splotches over her arms, indicating that she had vitiligo.

And Jeremy was Jeremy... Jeremy Louis, a now ex-PPD Officer from Mio, white, Jewish, and just... himself.

“This is touching... but I’ve set a course for Phita, it’ll be a good few hours before we arrive. I’d suggest you all go to the bunks and sleep before we get there... you’ll see things you’ve never seen in Phita.

Phita was a planet of mostly water, and half fish, half human people. These people usually could be half fish half human and full human and transform at will, and stay out of one or the other form for years and still be able to transform seamlessly.

It was also Thalia’s home.

He was sad that he probably wouldn’t get to see Thalia lay eyes upon Phita for the first time.

But hey, mermaids, as they were called, also possessed necklaces that could transform regular humans into mermaids as long as they wore them.

So he was probably going to get to do that.


	4. four: jeremy & thalia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group with Bloody Mary explores Phita; Thalia gets what she needs done on Pyros done.

Turns out, that is exactly what happened.

Bloody Mary sold the rocket launchers to a merchant on the shores of the oceans of Phita. Pink, blue, and white waves crashed on the white sand, and the merchant, loyal to their cause, lent them necklaces for their group to help destroy the listening posts. He was a secret Yellow Jade member.

The necklaces were strings of pearls with a simple shell of a certain colour, that clung to their skin once they put them on. 

Once they touched water, they transformed.

Their tails were the colours of the shells on their necklaces. Jeremy gained a deep sapphire blue tail with tiny green details on every scale, and his hair turned a dark shade of ash blonde.

Chloe’s hair turned a sleek, luminous red in the water, and her tail was orange and yellow and red, and truly beautiful, a sight to behold, glimmering in the underwater lights. Phita had huge glass orbs full of blue eternal flames every ten miles in the water, up, down, and across, lighting the way.

Brooke’s tail was hot pink, her scales much less prominent than Chloe’s tail, which was scalier. She had placed small sea gems and makeup from the natural flora of the ocean on her face, to blend in better with the real mermaids. Across her temples, a fishnet pattern of makeup, a smattering of sea gems, even a small star shaped stone. With a little bit of a substance from a fruit they called creecee, they stuck securely.

Rich’s tail was a deep emerald green, much more one colour than anyone else’s, but still had hints of lighter shades of green. Jenna’s was a deep purple, almost neon, and Nicole’s was a sun kissed yellow.

Jeremy’s half of the information included Phita’s listening post locations, so, swimming around with a big blue tail, he went solo and blew up the first one, in the underwater city of Kell.

After they blew it up with an explosive their merchant friend had given them, they found another Yellow Jade member, Robin, and she brought them to a building on the outskirts of town on motorised boards that they held onto and allowed to pull them along to hide out.

Robin was black, with deep, cool toned brown skin, long, wavy purple hair that floated with her, all the way down to the fin on the end of her tail. Her hair had gems woven into almost every inch of it.

She had big green eyes with small pupils and huge irises, hardly any white in her eyes. Her whole forehead to her under eyes were studded in sea gems, and she wore three long pearl necklaces, but they weren’t transformation necklaces, noted by the fact that they didn’t cling to her skin and they had no shell.

Her tail was sky blue, studded with gold tipped scales and a single green gem on each scale. Her fin was long, and really several thin layers of skin held together, but that could be peeled apart. 

Her arms were gently muscled, likely from the amount of swimming she did. They were both almost encrusted in gems and makeup details, and three bracelets on each wrist, as well as a huge green stone on her left wrist.

The place she took them was, coincidentally (and hilariously) an abandoned shopping mall, but one that had been deliberated sunk from the surface and kept intact. Phitians had been sinking bits of land for generations, their city of Atlantis was sunk hundreds upon hundreds of years ago and was a very famous example.

They swam up the motionless moving stairs, a blue glass ceiling looking up into the water above. After a few twists and turns, they ended up at a huge door made of pearl.

Robin pressed her hand against the door, and it swung open, leading into a small room, barely big enough to hold all of them, walled completely with pearl.

The door swung closed behind them when they were all in and Robin pressed her hand to the wall. Another press, with the other hand, and suddenly the water drained out of the room.

“It’s a air room... mermaids do like having a bit of air occasionally,” Robin said with a smile. When all the water was drained out, they all automatically and painlessly regained their legs, and the wall swung open, opposite of the door they’d come in.

It was an ornate yet tiny room, a carefully carved and painted ceiling of blue and purple and pink above them, pink and white stone walls, a couple statues, and a pool of crystal clear blue water.

“Kitty would love this,” Chloe said, crossing the room to dip her legs into the pool, allowing her legs to transform into that red, yellow, and red tail.

“Another member?” Robin asked. Her voice was high pitched, sounded kinda like a bird, with an accent reminiscent of the Français Sector back on Pyros. But still, it was little wonder she was named... or just codenamed- Robin... also, it was pretty ironic, since she was a mermaid. 

Well, right now she was pretty human, her long, muscular legs covered in gems, plenty of ankle bracelets on each ankle, and a toe ring on almost every toe. She took a shawl made in a fishnet pattern off a hook on the wall, and wrapped it around her torso, dipping her legs into the pool to let them transform.

“Yes... she stayed behind to get two other members and steal some information. She’s Phitian,” Chloe explained. 

“I see. So she is like me?” 

“I... I guess she is. I never thought of that,” Chloe said slowly.

It hit Jeremy a couple seconds later.

Thalia walked like a cat, graceful, with tiny steps, and could apparently jump high distances. Mermaids could swim long distances fast, and had muscular legs in human form, could jump really high.

So she was a mermaid.

Thalia had been his friend for what seemed like forever, but she kept surprising him.

_________________

Back on Pyros, Thalia went up to Sheriff Campbell’s office to turn in her request to use her 70th floor leave to Lord Green. Sheriff Campbell, obviously, was not in the office.

Peep had gone back home, and she was going to remain here. Another pretty high ranking, longtime, trusted member, Goldie, was going to be in charge of the Pyrosian segment of the Yellow Jade in Kitty’s absence.

The ride in the Bullet was utterly gruelling. What nobody else knew was that she’d been shot several times yesterday, but she refused to get medical attention... that would be suspicious. She’d been shot in her left leg, in her thigh, her right arm in her forearm, and her left shoulder. 

Standing up for too long hurt her to no end, but she kept up her unbreakable façade of stoicism and poise.

Thalia stood before Lord Green silently, right at the foot of his huge desk. There was a port for some sort of information courier droid to plug in, under the tabletop, obscured from Lord Green’s view. Without breaking eye contact, barely moving, in fact, Thalia slid an invention of hers she called the Silent Spike into the port.

It was a long, thin metal rod, shaped to fit in one of these droid ports. Usually, a notification would pop up on the computer that something had been slid into the port, and even if it did send a notification, Jeremy had told her that Campbell was annoyed by those notifications and had turned them off. So hopefully, if a notification was sent, Green hadn’t turned them back on.

But the telltale notification tone didn’t ding, and these kinds of notifications were sound only, no visual pop up.

The Silent Spike was synced to her wrist computer, hidden under her shirt sleeves, undershirt sleeves, and her regulation PPD jacket over her uniform, which was a little warm, but it kept her wrist computer from sight.

Silently, it installed all the information on the computer, and the end of the rod flashed an almost indescribable tiny blip of blue in the corner of her eye for a fraction of a second. Again without breaking eye contact, she silently took out the spike, and slid it into a deep hip pocket.

Lord Green was none the wiser. The spike’s technology bypassed all the security features of the computer, and without a trace of it ever having been there, downloaded everything onto her own computer. 

She was pretty good with technology.

And thank god Campbell’s office had no cameras.

Lord Green took out his rubber stamp and stamped her request, making it in law, valid, and the only way it could be voided was if Thalia returned to work voluntarily or if she was terminated.

A year of not having to work, but still getting paid.

“So, what will you be doing while on leave?” Lord Green asked.

Thalia shrugged. “Visiting some relatives on Nihong, maybe going back home to Jersey for a bit... I want my daughter to experience more than she has here. She’ll be homeschooled for the year.”

“Excellent. A very good learning experience for a young child,” Green said, sliding the piece of paper to her after signing it.

Thalia signed it herself, and when her pen lifted from the paper, she was officially on 70th Floor Leave.

It was a pretty sweet deal.

And studying Lord Green’s body language, he did not suspect a single thing. She noticed everything, down to the tiniest movement of his fingers, and he was none the wiser.

She was golden.

Thalia spent the rest of the day wrapping up any work she needed to finish, and talking to a couple coworkers. When five o clock rolled around, Thalia made sure to get in the same elevator as Officer Mell.

“So, going on leave? I’m just the rest of this year from hitting my max,” Michael said, initiating the small talk.

“Yeah... Olive needs to experience the world, and I want to visit where my parents are from.”

“Nihong and Phita?” Michael asked.

_”Tyraaak lucail nbataan twue jujuui, yie twk lyeaaek tweety.”_

What Thalia had just said was a Phitian saying. Hardly anyone on Pyros spoke Phitian, even those descended from Phitians, so she wasn’t worried about anyone working the security cameras flagging the conversation.

 _”Luugan tyrna uui,”_ Michael responded.

The saying that Thalia had uttered translated literally, ‘A Phitian helps a Phitian, especially that of same clan.’

Michael had responded, asking Thalia her clan.

“Mcatti.”

“Mheela.”

Phitians were separated into houses, further separated into clans, that ruled certain territories and cities and answered to nobody but themselves, and the Mcatti and the Mheela had been allies since ancient times. 

Together they were one of the four families who laid claim to Atlantis, the other two being the bitter Vreekat and the tyrannical Wrefaa, who staked their claim together, but if they gained control over the Mcatti and Mheela, would undoubtedly attack each other. The Mcatti and Mheela would split rule.

But the bottom line was that Mcatti looked out for Mheela and Mheela looked after Mcatti.

And Michael had not forgotten that.

 _”Tunakk geish loontala ui iintä, gymnsa lutta ceeetu,”_ Thalia said. That was her asking for Michael to become a double agent for the Yellow Jade.

Their conversation continued in Phitian as they stepped off the elevator and outside to the Tunnel station.

Michael told Thalia that he had never dreamed of becoming a Yellow Jade, but would not rat her out, because she was a Mcatti.

Thalia argued the mission of the Yellow Jade: to help the poor and make the galaxy a better place to live in, and that because he was spearheading Operation Jade, the operation cracking down on the Yellow Jade, he would be invaluable to the Jade.

Michael countered that that was exactly _why_ he could not be a double agent; he was the one cracking down on the Yellow Jade.

 _“Tuuti thuui tutit,”_ Thalia uttered. It was a simple Phitian saying, translating to simply ‘Help your sibling’s noble cause.’

“Why should I?” Michael responded, in Phitian.

“Because Jeremy is in on it, he was not feeling ill, he is on Phitia with our leaders, there to blow up listening posts,” Thalia said, though she said it as _Yhal yreety vigen, jenta Jedeemèyi tuu frhuka._

Michael stopped short. “Is he really?”

“He is.”

Thalia and Michael boarded the train together, sitting next to each other, Michael now deep in thought.

 _”Vhluyyi vhluytti,”_ Michael responded, translating to ‘I’ll do it.’

Thalia had a new mole in the PPD.

Key, whose real name was Mackenzie, was Olive’s best friend. Mackenzie was fourteen and Olive nine, but Olive had skipped enough grades to be in the same level as Mackenzie.

Thalia had submitted her homeschooling request for Olive that morning, and it had been approved. Thank the stars, this was the last day of school, anyway.

She picked Olive and Mackenzie up, and they briefly stopped at Chloe’s apartment for Mackenzie to pack some bags.

Back at her own apartment, she finally broke down and explained everything to Olive, including that for the next year she could school herself, but mainly she would be learning about the Yellow Jade and politics.

Luckily, Olive was nothing but excited, enthusiastically picking out the code name of Liv. Thalia refrained from mentioning that her previous codename had been OWO, after a babble of Olive’s when she was a baby. She would constantly babble the ‘word’ owo, and thus, when she needed something to refer to her daughter as while in Yellow Jade conversations, she chose OWO.

She gave Olive her own little Yellow Jade uniform, packed her necklace, a necklace for Mackenzie, and one for Olive, and they boarded a passenger flight to Phitia. Olive turned on her tablet, practicing the script of the language of Yuuti, a creepy pencil man showing her the strokes to write the letter Z in Yuuti. She did so gracefully on the guide, and Thalia leaned back, finally relaxing her aching bones.

Nik’Ai Tyhlia Mcatti was on her way home.


	5. five: thalia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thalia arrives on Phita and does the makeup of her daughter and Chloe’s daughter.

In their cabin on the passenger ship, on their way to Phita, Thalia encoded the information she’d just stolen from Lord Green while Mackenzie and Olive slept, and pulled it up on her wrist computer, allowing it to project documents holographically.

The first thing that popped up was likely what Lord Green was looking at while she was downloading the information. It was a scanned file, separated into sections, ‘Documents’ ‘Crime Scene’ ‘Suspects’ and ‘Evidence.’

Upon opening it, it was simply the case file for a small attempted manslaughter case in Nbootui, where the victim, a 31 year old mother, had been found in a yellow van, unconscious but alive. The person who’d tried to kill her eventually shot himself and was found in his own car, a silver four door sedan.

An open and shut case, just a routine case file.

Clearly, organising all this intel was going to take an obnoxious amount of time and effort, if this was the first thing that popped up.

She took out one of the four memory chips from her wrist computer and plugged it into a pink mp.4 player.

Except it wasn’t a music player... it merely looked like one. In reality, it was a waterproof pocket sized computer just like her wrist computer, the only real difference being that this was not a wrist computer, merely a handheld.

She turned it on and reviewed the first document that popped up, a phone call transcript from a wiretap of the home of a civilian who was suspected to be involved in a sex ring.

_Individual 1: They told me that you’re the guy to talk to._

_Individual 2: For what?_

_Individual 1: Murder._

_Individual 2: Who’s asking?_

_Individual 1: My name is Giovanni LaCosta. I need you to take care of an... issue._

_Individual 2: What sort?_

_Individual 1: My best friend disappeared two years ago. She left a note in my pillow, saying that if anything happened to her, it was surely Ratface Dewalt. Mob boss, mafia._

_Individual 2: Ratface Dewalt?_

_Individual 1: Angelo Fauci Francesco. He kidnapped her, raped her, forced her to wear a collar bomb and blow herself up in a grocery store. Her name was Sofia Giuseppina. She was my best friend since we were in diapers together._

_The transcript was dated five years ago, and also in the document was a picture of crime scene tape around a bloody shoe print, and a handwritten letter. Unfortunately for Sofia Giuseppina, the small Italian mafia of Kian was none of Thalia’s concern. She clicked away._

_She spent the entire night rocketing through space at light speed, organising the information into dozens upon dozens of subfolders, and only four parent files._

_One for documents about the Yellow Jade, one for conversations and documents and pictures not directly concerning the Yellow Jade but still important, one for hyperspace lanes, and one for things that didn’t matter._

_And still, literal thousands of documents still weren’t sorted when she became too sleepy and pained to continue working, turning off her wrist computer and handheld computer to go to sleep._

___________________

On the beaches of Phita, Thalia found the merchant that they had planned to sell the rocket launchers to. He said that her friends had passed through, and that they were in Kell waiting for her. 

She put on her necklace and helped Olive and Mackenzie with theirs, making sure to pull a gauzy piece of blue fabric over her face and secure it with pins. It was made of the flowers growing in the Phitian ocean, and it was effectively, a veil. 

There were eyes everywhere, and Officer Thalia McCarthy did not to be seen engaging in illegal activity on Phitia. 

After securing veils on both Key and Liv, the trio finally entered the warm, colourful oceans of Phitia. 

Thalia’s bright purple tail, studded with sapphires and every scale tipped with silver and tiny traces of blue, was put on her for the first time ever. 

She had studied Phitia extensively, but she was not a mermaid, because her Nihong mother was human, diluting the blood enough to make Thalia’s undersized gills nonfunctional, leading to their removal when she was a baby. Her grandmother had provided plenty of necklaces, and this was the first time Thalia had worn any of them. 

She knew how Phitia worked, but not quite how to be a Phitian. 

Thalia knew customs, traditions, the language, almost everything, except for the fact that this was her first time wearing a tail. 

This necklace her grandmother had designed especially for her. She had been a necklace maker, and she designed the tail after her own, making sure that the two would look related, similar. Her grandmother had had an emerald green tail with gold tipped scales, and quartz studding every scale. 

Thalia was a Mcatti; made evident by the small secondary fins where her upper thighs would be. Her grandmother had hoped to swim with Thalia and make it evident that Thalia was a Mcatti girl all the same, half human or not. 

She had never swam in her necklace, and her grandmother had died before Thalia could swim with her. Thalia had never known her. 

Thalia, at the insistence of her quarter mermaid daughter, stopped to pick sea gems of all colours from a gem plant, to stud her daughter’s face with them, in the pattern of the Mcatti family. 

Her arms, too, were studded, her makeup done, bracelets and necklaces purchased at a market on the outskirts of Kell, and the same for Mackenzie. Mackenzie was given gems in the pattern of Clan Yuves, which was an honorary clan, the clan a human wearing a necklace was. It wasn’t a real clan, it was just kind of there. Rather than telling someone you were a human, you told them that you were Clan Yuves. 

The Clan Yuves design was complicated and yet simple, a very rich pattern. Clan Yuves mermaids would stud their tails mainly with obsidian and pink sapphire, a lower level gem that was equally as important and beautiful as the blue sapphires, diamonds, and quartz common upon real mermaids. 

Thalia even bought the pair fishnet shawls, a pink one for Mackenzie and a green one for Olive. She had brought her own blue one. 

Everyone was fine and dandy until shots rang out. 


	6. six: thalia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thalia reaches Phitia and is immediately thrown into action.

“Liv, Key, get behind me!” Thalia yelled, pushing the two bewildered children behind her, and further pushing them around the corner of a building.

Kell was a city full of crime, tensions between the four clans with claims on Atlantis, and a whole lot of Heta.

The Heta were a terrorist group, no other word for it. They worked with the puppet government, the Rui’ruu, in trying to fully claim Atlantis for the Wrefaa. 

Phitia was ruled, in name, by Pri Luuta Meka’Ti Mheela-u, who, after the people of Iy, the moon of Phitia, took the Atlantian Palace in a coup, effectively gaining control of the government by threatening the life of the Pri.

She remained as the puppet ruler to give the Iy and their Rui’ruu government (literally translating to Imposter, a nickname the Iy embraced) some legitimacy, but they couldn’t give Atlantis to Wrefaa, seeing as the Pri was Mheela-u, a subset of the Mheela, a clan with an opposing claim to Atlantis, and giving Atlantis to the Wrefaa would violate every piece of the Phitian constitution and every treaty between every clan ever, provoke allies of the Pri, and would take the planet into civil war.

So the Heta did what they could, killing Mcatti in small skirmishes, and the Rui’ruu forced the Pri to pardon them if the lax, Rui’ruu controlled law enforcement ever decided to do their job and arrest them.

Not only that, they had a particular hatred for Clan Yuves, seeing humans in necklaces as not true Phitians, even though there were some Clan Yuves who had never been to the surface, humans who were in other clans, and a hundred thousand years of nothing but respect for Clan Yuves from full mermaids.

But right now, Thalia and her daughter were dressed as the Clan Mcatti they were, and Chloe’s daughter, Clan Yuves.

Thalia wasn’t a complete idiot, she had a blaster. Her blaster worked in the water, thank god, and she fired back, shielding the children from the gunfire.

It didn’t help that she had laser bolt wounds on her body already, that were untreated, other than a spot of peroxide on each before transforming on the beach. Sure, these weren’t metal bullets, the wounds didn’t bleed unless they were some special kind of non cauterising bolts, which were expensive and hardly ever used. But they could easily get infected, and they were still holes in the skin.

And here Thalia was, being fired at.

After a five minute exchange of gunfire, she heard the sound of the gondolas in the distance. They were the hovercraft of the water, even often sealed and drained for a breath of non water air, and she had no doubt that there were Heta in there.

She pulled out a stem from a nearby sea plant that was climbing up the building, the stem of a Lityanis Bucoerta. Strong, long, thick green vines. The one she’d yanked out was a good twenty feet long, and the Bucoerta family of plants were often used for blaster proof clothing. 

“Tie this to yourselves, we’re going for a swim!” Thalia yelled, handing Olive the end.

Olive tied it tightly around her waist, leaving a long tail, for Mackenzie to tie around her own waist. Once they were secure and knots pulled on by Thalia, the sound of gondolas in the distance growing louder, she grabbed part of the long section of vine that connected her to Olive and Mackenzie, and pulled the two along with her.

Thalia was a strong swimmer, a skill the Academy, as well as her upbringing in Jersey, had drilled into her. Pyros was mostly cities and factories to support the cities, but there was one large ocean, O-01. O-01 comprised part of the Jersey Sector and the entirety of the creatively named O-01 Sector, the largest sector on Pyros, despite being almost completely uninhabited.

But the politicians did talk ceaselessly of building underwater cities with their Phitian allies in the depths of O-01, and besides, it was an excellent skill to have, especially on ‘diplomatic’ missions. She swam pretty well growing up in Jersey, but the Academy forced her to truly perfect and polish it, swim out of simulated ship crashes, wreckage after an underwater bombing, in fact survive an underwater bombing.

The fact that she was half mermaid probably didn’t exactly allow any possibility that she’d be a bad swimmer.

And so, she could swim just as well as any Phitian. Her leg muscles were the same as theirs, built the same way, encoded in their DNA. 

And that helped her right now, dragging around a hundred and eighty pounds of adolescent girls, being chased by a mermaid terrorist group.

For all the flashy mermaid tails and readily available gems that grew everywhere, Phitia sure was a planet of politics even more complex than Pyros.

______________

Thalia swam away as fast as she could, firing back at the Heta whenever they got too close for comfort. She intentionally diverted into the transportation sector of Kell, where the Glass Tubes, what basically amounted to highways in tubes underwater, were located. Families in their gondolas watching a Mcatti die would not look well on the Wrefaa, even if their reputation as killers wasn’t going anywhere.

It would not be good PR to murder children and a mother in front of families going on vacation to Lytutta.

She darted around the tubes, not worried about hitting the gondolas, since, y’know, there was a pretty solid sheet of glass between them and the gondolas.

The Heta wouldn’t dare fire over here, they might hit the tubes and risk actually getting arrested. A quick glance over her shoulder saw the the Heta group had stopped at the first tube, reconvening, shaking their heads, letting her go.

A mile of crossing and interlocking tubes later, they entered a more residential side of Kell. Definitely not the old mall a bit outside of Kell that she was supposed to head to.

But after two or three miles of straight swimming, not even a handheld motor to propel her along, with gaping wounds, she had to stop, curl in on herself in the water, gently poking at the angry red mark on her shoulder under her fishnet shawl.

It screamed at her, and when a shot rang out and struck her in her lower tail, she screamed back.

Taking Olive and Mackenzie into her arms, she swam away from the advancing single Heta, and stole a parked gondola from the side of the road, tied poorly to a post.

Unfortunate for its owner, but a heavenly piece of equipment for Thalia.

She collapsed into the front seat, barely able to turn it on and steer it away.

Without a gondola at the ready and no more parked on the side of the road, the Heta finally gave up.

And so to, did Thalia’s body, her vision going back just as she choked out to Key to take the controls.

_____________

After a series of knocks on the door, Robin left the pool room, entering the water lock room and sliding the pearl wall closed behind her.

She returned, ten minutes later, with a seemingly lifeless Kitty in her arms, and a terrified Key and OWO in tow.

“What happened?” Jeremy asked, startled, rushing to Thalia’s side as she was laid out on the side of the pool. Chloe, on the other hand, went straight for Key, embracing her so tightly Jeremy wouldn’t have been surprised if the small girl had keeled over.

“She’s got infected blaster wounds and a fresh one in her tail, that’s what,” Robin said, pulling Thalia’s fishnet blanket off her arms. It had dried completely in the water lock room. 

Her shoulder had a large, angry red mark, with small black streaks beginning to form. Infection, for sure.

Her necklace was removed and her legs removed, and a similar mark was found on her left leg. Her upper arm, on the opposite arm from the shoulder with the wound, bore the same. And a fresh one, black with blaster dust, was in the ankle of her previously uninjured leg.

“We don’t have medical supplies in here!” Brooke cried, covering Thalia from chest to hip with her blanket, Olive adding a similar blanket over it. The poor girl’s soft, young features were knitted with worry, something that made Jeremy sad beyond comprehension.

Olive had gotten involved.

“Yes we do... you think that this is just a pool room?” Robin asked, almost indignantly. She got up, long legs stepping over Thalia and rushing to the nearest wall. Her mere handprint swung the door open, and beyond was a large room.

The walls were painted black, with white and red and blue stars and moons painted on them. One single purple moon was also among them. 

The floors were clear, pale purple glass, and you could see through to the empty food court, something that uncannily reminded Jeremy of his time in the Death Seat. 

“This is the star room... every system, every star, every moon and planet and astroid belt was painted here,” Robin explained, rushing back to the pool room to help Brooke carry Thalia in.

“And when were you going to show us this?” Chloe asked.

“Soon!” Robin yelled back.

Past the large, almost cathedral sized room (the star studded ceiling was certainly cathedral sized) was a narrow purple hallway with blue streaks, leading to a large room lined with military grade bunks, and several sets of metal interrogation tables and chairs repurposed as simple tables for use by the Yellow Jade on Phitia.

Clearly, this was not an original feature of the mall, or this room’s original use.

In a cabinet on the wall that Robin opened with her handprint, there was a medical ship’s worth of medicine, bandages, even surgical tools, pretty much a doctor’s heaven. 

Or a first aid enthusiast’s heaven.

Robin, Chloe, and Olive (an aspiring doctor and pilot) got to work, cleaning Thalia’s wounds, spraying them with a generous amount of Infecti-No! (A medical spray for reversing wound infections, most commonly used on blaster wounds like these that weren’t treated immediately.) 

They then let the Infecti-No sit, then cleaned and disinfected the wounds again, a bit more Infecti-No, and then her wounds were tightly bound and a semi conscious Thalia was fed some painkillers.

After that, they got some more blankets from a utility closet, spread her out on a bottom bunk, and let the poor woman sleep.

And Olive stayed with Thalia, holding her mother’s hand and silently whispering Phitian prayers. Even though Olive was only a quarter Phitian and had never been on Phita before, it was just like Thalia to teach the girl Phitian.

Galactic Basic was the standard language almost everywhere, especially planets in this sector of the galaxy, and so it wouldn’t be at all weird that only some of them had some Phitian, but it was nice to have people who spoke it with them.

Phitian politics, Jeremy was quickly learning, were complicated under all the glitter and flashy tails.


	7. seven: chloe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe’s thoughts as they hide in the abandoned mall.

Chloe’s bright orange tail flicked in the water of the pool room, her face knitted in concentration, studying an object that Olive had given to Chloe after she was gently forced to leave her mother’s side and maybe get some rest. 

A pink mp.4 player, old, undoubtedly customised in some way or another by Thalia. Apparently, the documents Thalia had stolen from Campbell’s office were on it, but Olive didn’t know the combination to get into it, and Thalia was currently staring into space at the bottom of the top bun.

Chloe sat on the edge of the pool, only her bright tail submerged, makeup and gems that Olive was applying skilfully (for someone who had never been on this planet before) to her left temple wrinkling with her face.

“Stop, they won’t stick right if you keep wrinkling up your face,” Olive whispered, her voice not conveying annoyance whatsoever, rather, fear.

Her worry for her mother was overshadowing everything else, and it’s not like Chloe could blame her.

She ran a galaxy wide gang, for heaven’s sake. She had agents as far away as Nnba Major, almost a full day at light speed away, dying right this instant as their government took the lead Pyros established and began cracking down on them. 

On Phitia, her agents hardly ever wore masks. They were uncommon here, and faces so studded in gems and caked in makeup that faces were unmemorable anyway. 

Veils, large hats, and hoods were not uncommon on Pyros, how else would Chloe be able to steal the exact same make of a red cloak and the exact same make of a simple wristwatch twice? 

Not steal. She was simply an acquirer of things that did not belong to her.

That was a saying she repeated almost daily, because a gang, as it turns out, does a lot of stealing, and Chloe wasn’t one to sit back and do tactical on the bridge of a ship. 

There was a similar headdress to the one the Yellow Jade wore, a Koshian headdress, what the Yellow Jade head covering had been based on, in fact. Helping the Jade blend in further on Pyros was a huge Koshian presence on Pyros, as well as in every planet on almost every planet a day or less away from Kosha.

Kosha was once a lush, forested planet, full of animal life and beautiful, clear oceans and thick green forests. They had the largest military for hundreds of millions of miles, second only to Pyros.

The planet was always under martial law, one person from every family, in fact, legally required to be in the military. The Kosha were not fighters like Phitians, but Kosha feared it would be attacked, for reasons unbeknownst to even it’s own rulers, protected by history of protection, and whatever secret was forgotten.

And then it was remembered again.

The chemical used to make lethal injections and a component in many non laser blasters and dart guns, YTYN-12, was discovered in the oceans, in the trees, everywhere. Rulers before had protected the secret so fiercely that it had been forgotten, until a farmer had found too many bright blue puddles and called it in.

Every bit of Kosha was opened up for strip mining by the power and money hungry King Ruish, every bit but royal lands, but including every bit of residential land.

On Pyros, such a thing would have led to open rebellion, huge riots, forcing Parliament and the royals to step down. On Kosha, already a huge military planet, everyone was conditioned to trust their government absolutely, and to have not even a thought of displeasure with their leadership. Their family members were in the military if not them, to Koshans, they were the government.

But they were not. King Ruish was the government and he kicked them out, willing to let his planet be stripped of all it’s luscious beauty for a pile of cash, his own people displaced.

Every Kosha was eventually forced to evacuate, as mining went into full swing. They could not break King Ruish and the mining companies, so they fled.

Pyros was the nearest planet, so huge numbers flocked there. Lyko was another, and Garel, but those were only the notable ones. All but a fucking minuscule amount of Koshans had left their planet, and fled to others, and the planet had a population between five and seventeen billion.

The military all wore identical head coverings. One long piece of fabric attached to a veil piece, the long piece tied at the nape of the neck and the tail left hanging or pinned to itself. The veil, pinned to the sides of the other fabric and the wearer’s shirt with decorative pins. They were different colours for different squadrons, platoons, ranks, even age. Koshans were colourful, and it really was just an excuse to wear as much colour as possible in the oppressive, depressing job of being a soldier.

Being a soldier was depressing.

Sometimes, Chloe didn’t know what to do. She had thoughts of full scale rebellion, overthrowing the government of Pyros, make it socialist as all hell and give everyone a good life.

But the Yellow Jade were not soldiers. 

They were thieves, smugglers, pilots, children on planets, fed up with their government that was blind to their suffering.

Kosha was the extreme example, and almost everyone on almost every planet regarded him as a tyrant, the most selfish being in the world, a dictator. Only those enriched by the suffering of his people were left on his side... his own daughter had fled Kosha, publicly scolding and condemning her father. She had become the ruler of Kosha in name, and promised to one day take back Kosha.

Crown Duchess Ui Mallentha had something that Chloe didn’t, though: royal power.

So many planets around here were ruled by monarchies, occasionally accompanied with a Parliament, sometimes powerful martial law governed. Kosha, Phitia, Pyros of course, Garel, Mikos Minor, Nnba Minor, Nihong, Lhoran, Tuuk, Lyko...

Most of the systems that had PPD listening posts that they still needed to destroy.

And yes, they had only been here a day, but here they were, hiding out in a mall while Kitty was laying on a bunk, unconscious, her _daughter_ was here and more involved than ever, and she needed to get in touch with Peep and get her to run another story.

Getting through to the HoloNet on Phitia was much faster than on Pyros, they had faster HoloNet infrastructure despite being underwater, and her (thankfully waterproof) wrist computer, designed by Kitty, was great, showing her HoloNet news when she just typed it in.

And Peep’s story was making a huge splash.

It was brilliant, the story. It got the public talking about the Yellow Jade without the PPD controlling the narrative.

But it forced her to circle back, and ask herself; what did she really hope to accomplish?

To free her home world of Pyros from the oppressive PPD and the do nothing Parliament and make some real changes that would benefit the people, not just those on top? Absolutely.

But simply stealing from them would never make it happen. 

It was not acquiring of things that did not belong to them. It was theft, that was all the Yellow Jade did. Theft, distribution, soliciting, repeat. 

Besides feeding people, what were they actually doing? They were not in politics, they were no longer in the PPD... what good was this all doing?

Chloe finally figured out the combination of the mp.4 player and opened up a folder labelled ‘Campbell.’

A random file she selected in the folder was traditional crime file template, the documents, crime scene, evidence, and suspects. 

What was suspicious was that all of these were blank, other than a simple picture of a strip club diner, neon lights all lit up, angel wing lights and red vinyl benches visible on the inside, more neon buildings surrounding it. Which was both nowhere near where Campbell had disappeared and also a place the Yellow Jade frequented, and where Selli worked. Had they figured out that the Jade frequented it?

Chloe flicked her tail in the water, set the mp.4 player on the side of the pool, and dove in, swimming deep into this deep pool. Mermaids swum in water constantly, hundreds of miles from the surface, and this was shallow for a mermaid, probably only twenty feet deep.

Chloe swum to the end of the pool, which was much more natural, stone bottom changing to sea rock brought in.

Green algae grew on the rocks, and the whole area of water was green blue, not the clear white that the water on the other end was.

The rocks were soft to the touch, though they looked fairly jagged and sharp. 

Her fin brushed against the rocks, and came away unblemished... of course, mermaid fins were pretty much bulletproof, millions of tiny, paper thin layers stacking up and sticking together to form the fin.

She pulled apart a couple of layers just for the heck of it, right there and then. It was like peeling the casing off an orange, with thin, thin, delicate layers of fin, yet strong, not tearing even when Chloe pulled. Even a couple of these layers could soak up a blaster bolt without breaking a metaphorical sweat.

What was the Yellow Jade, if not a revolutionary organisation?

What was Jeremy to her, for he was someone she deeply admired, for leaving all he’d ever known for this ragtag group, leaving a life of luxury with the PPD and coming here, following her here?

Chloe kept on swimming.


	8. eight: thalia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thalia wakes up.

Thalia awoke with a start, a quiet gasp escaping her lips.

She woke up into a room with black walls painted with stars. Above her was something metal and hard and flat, and she was laying on something soft.

She decided that it was a bunk bed and gently, carefully, extended her sore limbs and sat up on the bed.

The walls were not merely painted black, the light was off, the only light coming from a skylight, showing the moving blue waves above them.

People were sleeping in bunk beds around her, and Chloe, in fact, had fallen asleep at one of the metal tables resembling interrogation tables in the room. Someone had draped a red blanket over her.

On the bunk above her, Olive slept, something Thalia was grateful for. The next bed over was Mackenzie on the top and a bottom bunk empty of humans but having a few bags that Thalia recognised as Chloe’s.

Madeline and Brooke shared a bed, and Rich and Jeremy, Jeremy, her best friend, asleep peacefully on the bottom bunk, something she was deeply grateful for.

Her wounds had been cleaned, cleared of infection, and now she was just stiff, meaning they’d sprayed her with Infecti-No. So, she needed to rinse it out.

She found the refresher and took off her clothes, clothes she hadn’t remembered putting on: a soft purple nightgown and soft black sleeping leggings, blue socks on her feet.

Hopefully it hadn’t been one of the men changing her.

She found soap and turned on the shower, waiting, bare feet on the cold, beautiful mosaic tiled floor, a mosaic of Asul, the goddess of cleanliness for the Phitians. She was beautiful, red hair around her shoulders and a beautiful mother of pearl top, her large blue green tail curled around a piece of pink coral. 

When it was warm, she stepped into the shower. She could just step outside the air rooms and go outside, but this was probably safer and more humane.

She stepped under the warm, steaming streams of water, and immediately, a luminous, glowing neon blue substance began to pour from her body, like she was rinsing hair dye out. Her hair was blue, she had plenty of experience dying it until she’d thrown in the towel and gotten it colour treated in Nbootui.

She’d sat under a metal head cover attached to a machine for five hours, special lights and special dye turning every strand of hair bright blue permanently, and changing the follicles to make sure new hair grew in blue.

It was soo not regulation, but the PPD sure weren’t going to force her to dye it back to her natural deep brunette hue, not after she’d spent forty thousand credits on hair treatment, cash taken out of her zipper pocket on her leg to pay for it up front.

Well, more like, they wouldn’t force her to change her hair back, she would just refuse if they asked her to. They wouldn’t force an officer who worked on the 70th floor to get a hair colour treatment reversal after getting a hair colour treatment done that they didn’t like.

Thalia was powerful, and had used her power to help people as much as possible... and now, she didn’t even know if she’d go back after the year of leave she’d taken ended. If Jade would let her back, if the PPD would let her back and not be suspicious.... but for now, she was getting paid for doing nothing, which should have been fine with her... but it wasn’t.

She craved her work. It was never the same, never boring. There were plenty of corrupt PPD officers (Sheriff Campbell among them) and plenty of people abusing their power for things other than cash, but there were just as many good heated officers just trying to keep the peace and make a difference... like her.

Sure, none of them had stolen the information on Campbell’s computer, but they weren’t keeping people out of prison for bribes, weren’t forcing a not guilty decision from a jury of corrupt jurors. But they were just like her in almost every other way... supporting a family, many having worked their way up from poverty, just trying to make a difference.

The PPD was not broken, not entirely. It was Parliament, run by the rich, for the rich, that was the issue. The PPD was just a scapegoat that Parliament employed to keep the people off their backs... building a giant, expensive police headquarters and expanding their force triple fold for the express purpose of creating jobs when there really wasn’t a need for them was all Parliament and some Lord Green. 

Those jobs hadn’t really existed before, until they built a huge obelisk that required construction workers and workers who were not police officers when it was finished. So in a way, it accomplished it’s purpose. In another, it was simultaneously a PR dream and nightmare, with citizens wondering if the PPD was out to get them, crack down on crime.

Lord Green and Campbell partied with senators, the monarchy, the rich and famous. They were pretty much monarchy, themselves. The Yellow Jade were only annoying and irritating to the rich, the general public were either indifferent or loved them. 

They were actively committing acts of theft every day of their existence, so they had plenty of reason to prosecute them, merely no hard evidence of bigger crimes to account to them, nor knowledge of which individuals the crimes had been committed by. 

In wearing their uniforms, they became anonymous, just another person in black and a veil, just another member of the Jade, annoying bugs to the rich that they couldn’t quite squash, wreaking havoc on their lives every way they could. The crimes were anonymous in every way and yet the least anonymous a crime could be in every other way, all at once. 

Now that Thalia really thought on it, glowing neon blue Infecti-No staining the walls of the shower, the PPD were merely puppets of Parliament and Lord Green, and to some extent, Campbell. They were the scapegoat to blame all issues on, everything filed in the name of the PPD, while Parliament got off scot free. 

Nothing Parliament ever did, save for a few really large laws and amendments, really ever got into the news cycle. The PPD, however, was constantly in the news, every move they made scrutinised, when really, the individual officers hadn’t had much choice, nor anyone else working in the obelisk, or anywhere else on Pyros. Even Campbell didn’t really have much of a choice, he did what Lord Green and Parliament and the monarchy said and that was all.

Oh, and the monarchy. The oft forgot but extremely important component of politics on Pyros.

Queen Reja had to approve everything Parliament did, or otherwise block it, make rulings herself, control the military hand in hand with Parliament, but her with the final say, the finale vote... the military, which, was the PPD and the Royal Guard.

The Royal Guard were elite soldiers, ex PPD officers, who were asked to train for the Guard. The training program took a year, a gruelling, fast paced, breathless training. It had to be done in a year, everything taught remembered exactly. Martial arts, combat training, strategic and tactical military training, and a deep knowledge of how the government functioned.

Royal Guardsmen would guard the Royal Palace in Kian, and were also elite fighters, quelling anything the PPD couldn’t on their own, helping fight any war Pyros waged.

In Kian, the PPD was little more than a scapegoat, and obelisk, and, well, a police department. Elsewhere, it was the military. Kian required police officers, the rest of Pyros had police officers who were soldiers.

Not to say that Kianian PPD officers were not soldiers. The Academy trained them for five years straight, and it wasn’t like martial arts and military strategy weren’t engraved in them by retired officers and Guardsmen. They were trained soldiers, just like elsewhere, but they acted as police. Everywhere else, the PPD acted as military and police.

And still, the PPD was not entirely corrupt. It’s leadership? Yes, corrupt. A small chunk of their officers? Yes, corrupt.

But was it full of people like her, just wanting to make a difference? Absolutely yes.

So what were they fighting for? They stole from the rich, gave to the poor, Jade would insist that it was merely acquisition of things that did not belong to them, rinse and repeat. 

What were they fighting for?

Whatever it was, Parliament wanted rid of them, but not public support. Frame them for kidnapping or maybe even killing Campbell, and suddenly they controlled the narrative.

And they needed to get control back in their hands.

She took Liv, Two, and Crumbcakes with her, and they left the air rooms. They swam down the courtyard of the mall, ignoring the bright blue windows, ignoring a planter with no plants growing, and took a gondola the furthest out of Kell and closest to the surface they could get that way, to a small suburb called Cystel Floida.

In Cystel Floida, they ignored their crystal houses and beautiful coral, and posed for a picture taken on Thalia’s wrist computer, still strapped to her wrist. 

They posed with the welcome sign, welcoming them to Florida. Florida was this particular section of Phitia, a large section, nine thousand miles across and nine hundred long. 

The four mermaids in their beautiful, flashy tails, posed for a simple picture with a welcome sign, and Thalia transferred the file to her mp.4 player file holder. Chloe would see it.

The welcome sign continued to glitter among the underwater trees as they swam away towards the surface.

The water began to shimmer with the sunlight as they reached higher and higher, the welcome sign becoming smaller and smaller below them. 

Her head breaking the water was the most freeing feeling she had ever felt. Breathing the air that was not in the water, the feeling of force as she broke the water, a flock of birds all in a row rushing over their heads, rushing over the blue waves.

They swam to the shore with the pink waves, took their necklaces off, and climbed a cliff to catch an Air Gondola to the airport, the water far below the jagged rocks. Air Gondolas were not ships, merely boats on the water, not under them.

They crossed a bridge to get to the station, something the locals called the Leap Bridge.

The Leap Bridge was covered in love locks, put there when people had babies. Babies were usually born above ground, because mermaids could not breathe water’s air for the first twelve hours of their life. 

After the twelve hours, they would head to the bridge, lock in a padlock, put the key on a special necklace around the baby’s neck, and throw the baby over the edge.

Brutal on paper, but effective and actually oddly beautiful in real life... or so Thalia had heard. She hadn’t gotten to do it with Olive... and Olive was only a quarter Phitian, so she would’ve drowned after being tossed off the bridge.

A small crowd of people were gathered on the bridge, a small, beautiful, dark skinned baby, face covered in blue gems, wrapped in a red fishnet blanket, in her mother’s arms. The group stopped to watch.

The mother, light skinned with thick, curly brunette hair, touched foreheads with her baby, a common way of showing affection for Phitians, and then held her baby’s hand in one of hers, together closing the lock on the railing of the bridge.

The key was hung on a choker, put onto the baby’s neck, and then she was thrown over the edge, her mother laughing with happiness and then diving in after her. The baby’s tail formed in midair, yellow and shimmering bright, resembling her mother’s that also formed in the air, but hers was yellow with red tints.

The rest of the group hopped in after the mother had hit the water, to rejoice below.

The group crossed the bridge.

They got to the station and promptly got on the Air Gondola. It was a small, green boat, and it floated through a series of canals forming the above water city of Felucia.

The canals were formed with brick walls that went about ten feet deep before ending, just enough to keep the above water boats in the confines of the canals.

Around them, though, was land, the largest landmass on Phitia, in fact. Only a hundred miles up and a hundred and fifty wide, yet only going thirty five feet deep. 

Beautiful, small buildings lined the canals, residences, most of them. It was a beautiful city.

The Air Gondola was faster than it seemed, and they got to the airport, and then promptly boarded the first public transport flight going back to Pyros.

They would destroy listening posts and they would make a statement.

It was time for them to fight.


	9. nine: jeremy & chloe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Chloe talk in the aftermath of the sudden departure of friends.

When Chloe found out that Kitty, Liv, Crumbcakes, and Lord have mercy, Two, had left, she went into a silent rage.

Chloe kept her necklace on and dove into the pool, sitting on the bottom and blowing bubbles, and then shaping the bubbles into hearts. 

The water seemed to be steaming, and maybe that was just Robin turning up the heater, or it was Chloe’s anger. She stayed there for two days, doing nothing else, just steaming under the surface.

On the third day, Robin pulled a transmitter out of a back closet, and Chloe tapped out a message to Thalia’s wrist computer on the outdated N2T transmitted, Number to Text.

She typed in a numerical cloaking code, waited for the keyboard to reset, and then the combination number of Thalia’s HoloNet number that went with her wrist computer, and then the hard part, typing out the correct letters in accordance to the cipher.

The keyboard assigned a random letter to the letter A, and then a random number from one to twenty six, and the key was printed out a sheet of paper, and a bonus with this model, a randomised message on the end, just for fun. 

It was a kitschy little thing that the company had done to try and garner attention and higher sales, and it hadn’t really worked, since the company, LUFTA, was no longer in existence. 

The message on the end was simple.

_They said you were the person to come to... for murder._

It was the same quote on the back of the painting.

That painting with the stupid paint that had disguised a secret door, back on Pyros, back on the mall.

Chloe laughed angrily at the message, also putting the pieces together as to why it was amusing, and, glancing at the key from time to time, typed out a simple message.

_You will return at once, Kitty._

Once it was transmitted, Chloe stomped off, heading for a room off the bunk bed room that Jeremy hadn’t been in, yet.

The others looked down at the floor awkwardly. Brooke, Chloe’s right hand woman, had gone with Thalia. And Crumbcakes, a trusted individual with a sweet personality. And for what reason they had left, they didn’t know.

They didn’t even know if they were still in the Yellow Jade.

After an awkward moment with the others around the transmitter, Jeremy followed in Chloe’s footsteps, following where she had walked through a hallway with railroad tracks painted on it, into a room.... a room that was an exact replica of the secret room in the mall on Pyros.

Three angel statues, on a shelf in the same place as it was on Pyros. The picture of people kissing with masks on. The walls, uncannily the exact same shade of paint, even the bar lights were the same.

The blue angel was set on the floor, on her side, a hole in the base of the statue revealed, a map rolled out on the floor next to it. Chloe was by the wall, taking down the picture of the people kissing with masks on.

“What is this place, really?” Jeremy asked.

Chloe set the picture down on the floor, and sat back down on the floor, crosslegged, to study the map. Luckily, the map was not the same one as on Pyros... but still. Creepy as hell.

“They left... and I don’t know why... and I should know why,” Chloe said, voice soft, low, and dangerous, not even looking at him. “What are they doing? Fuck, Two went with them! Two went with them! Kitty, I could talk myself into thinking that it wasn’t completely out of character, but Two... Two’s too important. Two knows too much.”

“What do you think they’re going to do?” Jeremy asked.

“Honestly, Grey? No idea.”

“You don’t have to call me that... nobody’s listening.”

“You don’t know that!” Chloe snapped, voice cracking like a whip in the air.

“We have to trust them... I don’t think they’re betraying you. They have no reason to. They have something up their sleeves, I’m sure... and you don’t have your hand in every little thing the Yellow Jade does, everywhere... Jade,” Jeremy said softly, a kindness in his voice that made Chloe’s anger truly melt. But, she had to keep the hard exterior, wouldn’t let his words break down her walls.

“They didn’t tell me where they were going, and Kitty’s still injured. And they took Liv, so clearly, she’s not going on a day trip to Lyko’s forests, just for fun,” she said, a bit of the edge in her voice gone despite her best efforts,it now being softer, less rough around the edges.

“Kitty would take O- Liv... she would take Liv with her, no matter what, unless she was going on a suicide mission. Liv’s not in school, she’s involved. Kitty would take her no matter where she was going.”

“Still... it... it worries me. They didn’t tell me, for Christ’s sake, they left in the middle of the night and sent me a selfie of them at the Florida welcome sign. Florida... that’s the next section over. Maybe we should go see if we can-“

“No. Trust Kitty. Trust Two. Trust Crumbcakes. They know what they’re doing... they know what they’re doing,” Jeremy said. His voice was vulnerable and gentle, and his hand had found it’s way to Chloe’s shoulder, gently resting there.

Chloe reached her hand up to put over his on her shoulder, allowed herself to relax into the touch for just a moment, before pushing him away.

Jeremy put his hand back.

“You don’t need your hand in everything, you don’t ever have your hand in everything,” Jeremy repeated softly. 

Chloe closed her eyes.

“Almost every planet has a Yellow Jade captain... I’m the captain of Pyros, Phitia, and Tuuk, and the whole thing overall.”

“So you’re in charge of everyone and also Pyros, Phitia, and Tuuk especially... you don’t trust people to take delegated tasks from you and step back on those planets, so you can focus on the bigger picture?”

“Phita’s captain died in Atlantis... she was a Mheela. Died after a Heta crossed the line and killed her, point blank. Fucking Phitian politics... Tyula’s murderer will never be served justice. She died two years ago... never picked someone else to captain Phitia. And Tuuk... not a big enough presence on Tuuk to really need a captain, other than me.”

Chloe relaxed slightly as she spoke, her hands relaxing in her lap.

“You don’t have to put so much on yourself.”

“But I do! If I don’t, who else will?”

“I will... I want to help you, Chloe, and so does everyone else. Hell, Kitty and the rest are probably doing something that’ll help, a whole lot.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Chloe said, a pained expression and pinched lips painted across her face as she finally looked up at him from her position; crosslegged, hunched over towards the map, hair in front of her shoulders and hanging with the way her neck and head were.

“If you relaxed a bit... I think you’d feel better,” Jeremy said.

Chloe placed her hand on his other hand, the one not on her shoulder.

“I wish I could... but I can’t.” Her voice was broken, vulnerable.

“Where did you come from, Jade?” Jeremy asked, voice barely above a whisper, looking into her intense emerald green eyes.

“Treka Sector... doubt you’ve heard of it. It’s a disputed sector, trying to break off from the Trun sector. Ethnic groups, native to Pyros, are fighting over it. The Tanil and the Hesha. The Tanil want to separate into Treka, the Hesha want to retain them. I’m a Tanil.”

“Why have I never heard of these groups?” 

Chloe snorted. “Yeah, the Academy is going to teach you about the natives and their lives and struggles and oppression.”

“Okay... point taken.”

“They’ve been fighting over Treka becoming independent from Trun for over a hundred years... I lost my sister in a battle. Lillian, her name was. She was a warrior... she died defending our home when the Hesha firebombed Treka.”

“That’s.. that’s horrible. I’m so sorry, Chloe.”

Chloe shrugged. “She is long gone, and there’s no use in continuing to grieve over her.... I will fight for her memory and the galaxy and my people.”

“You want to change lives... it’s noble. You’re so noble.”

“Yeah, and I’m sacrificing any chance at happiness I could ever have by doing it. My daughter is involved... do you even know who her father is?”

“No? Why would I?”

Chloe laughed. “Jeremy, her father is Officer Dillinger. His family owns a mine in Frekla, next door to Trun. They were on a visit there - he’s really from Tiger - and he went to our Neon District, and.... yeeeah. I was nineteen.”

“Holy shit... are you still-“

“Are you crazy?! No, of course not. He’s entirely too sweaty.”

“He’s Campbell’s right hand man... he’s constantly coated in a layer of sweat thick enough to hydroplane a car off of,” Jeremy joked.

Chloe laughed. A real, genuine laugh.... the first time Jeremy had ever heard her really, really laugh. It was a beautiful sound, like she had given everyone peace and happiness and food and was rejoicing.

“Your laugh is beautiful,” he said.”

Chloe shrugged it off with a small smile. 

Jeremy was just smiling back, all happy like, not processing any real feelings in his body, when Robin burst in.

“Jade, Grey... you have got to see this.”

“What is it?” Chloe asked.

Robin ushered them out, into the bunk bed room, where a newscast was playing off a HoloNet player.

And Kitty was on it.


	10. ten: brooke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brooke’s point of view as Thalia’s plan takes shape.

Kitty had had an idea, and she and Crumbcakes had followed her out in the middle of the night, Kitty’s daughter in tow, and they had left Phitia, gone straight for Pyros.

They had headed directly to that all too familiar strip club diner, sitting down at the red vinyl stools, the angel wing lights still shining, buildings lit up in neon hues surrounding it.

Selli was there, as always, and gave them a canned meat and cheese platter, just like the past two times they’d been there. Only this time, there was no red cloak, no expensive watch, no shoes and nothing to sell, just their Yellow Jade uniforms and their wits.

Peep was there, no uniform, sucking down on a truv fruit box, different from the last time, huge circle wire framed glasses perched on her nose. She stole a cracker from them, put some canned meat and cheese on it, and wrinkled her nose at the taste.

“We’ve got to give more stories... and we won’t give you anything better than this,” Kitty had said. Two had told her on the flight to Pyros that since this was Kitty’s plan, Kitty would lead. Two would take a back seat, despite her higher rank.

“What is it?” Peep, or more commonly known as Christine, asked. Her hair was let down long, top layers pulled into two messy space buns.

“We’re blowing up a listening post. Follow us with your camera, Two will be Ruby Martel. She will talk to the camera while we blow shit up.”

Christine nodded, and so did Two. It was a good plan... it would certainly make a statement.

They were walking down the neon lit streets, expolosives in their pockets, when a full platoon of Royal Guardsmen suddenly dropped from rooftops.

Fifty of them, by the looks of the crowd, all in identical white uniforms and white masks, hiding their identity. Fifty Guardsmen for only four Yellow Jade, plus Christine and Selli, though out of uniform, counted, theoretically, for six.

“Peep... camera. This is prime,” Kitty hissed, quietly enough not to be heard by the slowly, ominously approaching Guardsmen.

That was strategy, regulation. Drop down from a distance, advance slowly, not to fire any guns until very close, make the opponent think they could run or come up with something, and then turn on their lights and advance, wipe them out in an instant. 

Peep turned on her camera, a small thing, attached to two buttons on the left sleeve of her shirt, one on one side and one on the other.

It was a black long sleeved shirt, with a green alien head on it. The button displayed a hologram monitor, showing what she was recording. Two angles were being shot: one at her face, and one pointed towards the Guardsmen. And it was being streamed live on the Pyros Sun website.

“This is reporter Christine Canigula with the Pyros Sun, reporting live from the scene of an ongoing incident. Fifty armed Royal Guardsmen have descended from the rooftops, and are advancing on a group of Yellow Jade,” she said into her camera.

The viewership bar at the bottom of her monitor quickly went from zero to ten, fifteen... fifteen thousand, and growing.

The Yellow Jade stopped short, Christine stepping back, Liv next to Christine, blending into the shadows as much as she could. Kitty had whispered something in her ear, probably telling her to go run once she was out of sight, loose the uniform, and find someplace to hide.

Two knew how much those words must have pained Thalia, who had never wanted Liv involved. Key, Jade’s daughter, had begged to be involved, but Liv was only fourteen, a child, who was learning how to write the letter Z in a different language on a program on her tablet that featured a creepy pencil as its main protagonist and teaching figure.

She was too young, to promising, for this.

The Yellow Jade held their ground, Kitty’s hands twitching near her hips, where she had explosives. In the distance, Christine was shouting to the camera, sleeve held high, recording everything.

Two reached for her gun, not yet firing.

As the lights were flashed on, in an act of pure defiance, a show of how she _was not scared_ Kitty held up her hand, two middle fingers down, her pointer and pinky fingers up, a symbol Two had never seen before.

But she copied it, as well as Crumbcakes.

Kitty jumped onto a building, using her magnetic grappling hook for help. She took a running start and swung back down, scooping Crumbcakes up with her to swing up with her.

Crumbcakes had the best blaster of any of them, a TE-223. High power bolts, deadly silent, a rate of forty blasts a minute. That was even higher than what the Guardsmen had.

Too bad they only had one.

Crumbcakes fired her gun into the crowd of Guardsmen, and chucked an explosive at them. They were circular metal things, as big as an egg. She pressed the activation button on it and then chucked it into the crowd as Guardsmen fired at them with full force.

The explosion knocked down a good few Guardsmen, and Kitty detached her grappling hook, jettisoning it again at the next building, swinging the two along further.

Two had two blasters, and she advanced on foot, guns blazing. Selli had had her waitress uniform on, she was seen as an innocent bystander and had probably escaped back to the diner, luckily. 

Two got right into hand to hand combat with the Guardsmen. They had had elite classes... she had experience. She took one down with a kick to the jewels, fingernails in his eyes, and a fist in his nose, after chucking off his mask, of course.

Guardsman after Guardsmen, she took them down. But they were advancing on her, starting to overwhelm her.

She was about to be pushed over by an advancing Guardsman when a short girl in a Yellow Jade uniform came running in between them, shooting the Guardsman mid gait. 

It was Liv.

“Olive, no!” Kitty screamed.

That was a fatal mistake.


	11. eleven: thalia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fight continues and a devastating loss occurs.

The distraction allowed a Guardsman to shoot the cable Kitty and Crumbcakes were swinging from, and the two plummeted ten feet. Thankfully they had been on a downswing when the cord had been snapped, but it was no less terrifying when they hit the concrete hard.

Two did not let herself loose focus. She continued to fight the Guardsmen in close combat, disarm them, knock them down, maybe shoot them. Olive being there did not help her anxiety, but she had to admit, Olive was fast, a speedy little girl, sniping the Guardsmen right where they stood.

But Kitty was thrust into Two’s face, mid-punch.

She was semi conscious, a large dark spot in her veil, her head limp, a Guardsman holding her up, another holding a gun to her head. Two more, holding Crumbcakes, approached as well.

“Stop at once, or they will die,” the Guardsman holding the gun to Thalia’s head said.

He removed his mask and tossed it to the ground, tapping his titanium toed PPD boots impatiently.

He was Lord Green.

“This mother’s desperate cry gave me the final piece to a puzzle I was very close to figuring out... this young woman I hold a gun to... this... this is not just a random Yellow Jade renegade.

He put the gun in his holster, and the two holding Crumbcakes let go of her, allowing her to crumple to the floor. The other Guardsman holding Thalia stepped back.

And then Lord Green ripped off her veil.

“Officer Thalia Joyce McCarthy... half Phitian, her Phitian name being Taliah Nik’Ai Mcatti... although there are several records of slightly differing pseudonyms for her Phitian name. Born to George McCarthy and Luuga Martel Wizaki, a Nihong native. She had a daughter in the Academy... Olive Lorelai McCarthy. Thalia works on the 70th floor of the PPD headquarters here in Kian, and just went on a yearlong paid leave. How... curious.”

Two didn’t let it distract her.

She hit Lord Green on the head with her blaster, grabbed Kitty, scooped up Crumbcakes, and they all ran.

There is running, and then there is what Two, Kitty, and Crumbcakes were doing, Liv following behind. Their speed was adrenaline fuelled and insane, but would not last.

They ran into a Tunnel station, and, knowing the tunnels had high ceilings, they climbed up top as it began to move forward.

Just as she was scaling the side and the train was picking up speed, about to exit the station, Olive was grabbed by a Guardsman, and before they could even truly process it, the station was whipped away, replaced by the brick walls of the tunnel.

Thalia’s scream echoed throughout the tunnel.

_____________

Thalia pushed Two away and began to run towards the end of the train, clearly planning on going back for Olive, but Crumbcakes grabbed her.

“No, Kitty. You’ll be struck by a train,” she said quietly, gently. 

“I have to go back for her,” Thalia growled, trying to shake her off.

“No! You can’t. You’ll be struck, you’ll die. We will get her... we’ll get her.”

“We get off at the next stop, and try and go after them,” Thalia snapped, voice choked with emotion.

Her daughter had been captured.

Her light, her joy, the reason she did this... she was in the hands of Lord Green.

“Yeah, looks like we will, for sure!” Two shouted, as a Guardsman swung himself up from where he must have been, hanging off the edge of the last car, now on top of the train.

The group ran, thankfully with the high ceilings they didn’t need to duck. 

Running on the top of a smooth, metal train, going fifty miles an hour in a pitch black tunnel, was as easy as it sounded. But they managed to outrun him to the front car, and luckily, they came upon the next station, finally. The three jumped off as soon as they physically could, scaring passengers who jumped away from the three.

Another Yellow Jade member, unmasked but in the rest of the uniform, grabbed them, and took them where they would not be found.

An old warehouse, just a little bit from there. After the purple haired girl with white shoes had taken them there in shopping carts, she’d assured them, they were safe here.

There was a playground set in the lower levels of the warehouse; it was once a warehouse for a building company that had a small playground division. The three hung out there, Thalia collapsing into a tube and laying there, before rolling onto her side and breaking into horrible, full body sobs.

Her daughter was gone. She’d sworn to protect her and now she was gone. She had sworn not to get her involved.

She was involved.

She had been captured.

Two began swinging on the swing set, muttering to herself.

“How do we get her back?” Thalia choked out, finally. It was hours later; Crumbcakes had started a roaring fire to keep warm, and she had woken up, stiff.

“Rotunda says that they’re taking her to the Lutha Rais prison. That’s in Tentu Sector, three hundred miles from here. Most fortified military prison on this entire planet, buried deep in the wilderness,” Brooke said.

“Who’s Rotunda?” Thalia asked. 

“That’s your question?”

“You think some fortification and woods are going to keep me from her?!” Thalia choked out, another sob rising in her throat that she swallowed down.

“Rotunda is the person you recruited. Lord Green specifically requested for Olive to go to Lutha Rais.”

“I don’t care if it’s Lutha Rais of the middle of fucking nowhere on Tuuk, I’m getting her back,” Thalia said.

“Rest, Thalia,” Crumbcakes said softly. “You need your strength.”

“My daughter is being taken to Lutha Rais, and it’s my fault!”

“Go to sleep, or I’ll make you go to sleep. No more, just sleep, and we’ll deal with it in the morning.

Thalia grudgingly complied.

They reached Tentu twelve hours later, heavily disguised and riding in on the Pyros Grand Royal Train. The tracks stretched for miles, and so did Thalia’s neck, anxiously peering out the windows.

“You should relax, Kiala,” Crumbcakes said. They’d decided to dump their codenames and real names, and give themselves new ones. Crumbcakes was Angelique, and Two was Teela, they were Mioans going to Tentu for work in the logging towns.

Thalia - Kiala - shrugged off the suggestion given to her by Angelique.

Thalia had gotten a shirt from the gift shop of the train station, and it said _Mountain Jew_ across the front.

It was referencing a popular soda drink, Dew Summit, which was basically good tasting poison. 

Thalia, despite not being Jewish, bought the shirt without a second thought.

Jeremy would’ve loved it, so it was really too bad that it got covered up with a grey jacket and a backpack thrown over her shoulders.

They reached Tentu by midday and headed straight for the Logan’s Logging Company.

They rented three cars from Logan’s, which, surprisingly, was also a rental car company in a tiny logging community.

They rented a small silver four door car, a square yellow van, and another van that had a blue back plastered with bumper stickers and ‘Fairly Odd’ spray painted over the lighter blue front. 

While they were renting the cars and doing paperwork, Two had played a little arcade game that they had had there, and quickly beat the first couple of levels before they got the keys and go to go.

They drove all three cars as far up the road as they could go, and then off roaded among the luscious trees, perfect for logging. 

They parked the cars as close as they could without them being seen, and then climbed the mountains the rest of the way.

Thalia momentarily stopped at one of the summits, staring off into space, high above everything else.

She took a moment to close her eyes... and remember what had gotten her here.

_She had shot Jeremy... she had shot her best friend._

_Jeremy... had been infiltrating the Yellow Jade this whole time._

_“I’m sorry!” She cried, wiping her tears with bloody hands. “I’m sorry, Jeremy.”_

_Yet he had forgiven her._

_Olive’s scream, although not really heard when it was uttered, overshadowed by that of her mother’s, had been remembered and had begun haunting Thalia._

She would never forgive herself for that.

When they reached a fence, using a utility knife, Two broke open a section of fence... and with that, they were in.

They were inside the most impenetrable military prison in existence.

Not terrifying at all.

_______________

Chloe had rebounded a bit, blown up fifteen listening posts in three days, after Thalia made the news.

Peep had done well to record it, fucking livestream it when her agents were ambushed by Royal Guardsmen, but what the issue was was Thalia’s cover being broken.

No more going into the PPD for her... no more steady job.

And her daughter... the amount of danger her daughter was in was undeniable.

At least they had the information Thalia had stolen.

Chloe pushed herself into working, blowing up places where the PPD could spy on them, staying out of sight and incognito, as it should be. There was no evidence left at the scene of every crime that could tie it to the Yellow Jade, but with them destroying very certain PPD listening posts, it didn’t take an idiot to figure out what was going on.

Chloe couldn’t go to Pyros and bail Thalia out... she was on her own... well, with Brooke and Madeline and Olive. Those four were on their own, they weren’t transmitting any messages to her and she couldn’t do anything, anyway. No way could she go back, the PPD was on full alert, there was talk of a lockdown on Kian until every single fucking Yellow Jade member was found and arrested.

Chloe sure hoped that the person Thalia had recruited was legit, since he was apparently in charge of the task force cracking down on the Yellow Jade, and was supposed to be trying to do all he could without blowing his cover.

But Chloe couldn’t go back to Pyros and make sure.

It was all up to them.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is @nbchristinecanigula so uh... ùwú


End file.
